Entrepreneurship

Our major private employers are a reminder that a company's success all started with someone's "crazy" decision to step out on their own. They mortgage their homes and convince their family, friends and investors that they could turn their idea into a product or service and get enough people to buy it before they faced bankruptcy, divorce or both. In most cases, the successful result of this decision would be a future one. Either the entrepreneur or his or her children put all the chips back on the table for a non-revocable bet on their team to either leap into future growth or risk dying a slow death.

ELKHART -- The Corporate Partnership for Economic Growth announced Wednesay that North Central Indiana has secured $3 million to support entrepreneurship and venture development in the region. Leading businesses and institutions from throughout the region are committing $1 million to fund the Regional Entrepreneurial Action Plan. The $1 million commitment will be matched by a $2 million investment by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The funding will be provided to Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization, to provide services to entrepreneurs in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties.

SOUTH BEND -- What can government do to encourage entrepreneurship? Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels listed a few examples Tuesday during a talk at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. During his administration, he said, the state has streamlined its permitting processes -- "time is money" -- and improved tax credits for research and development, new patents and assembling venture capital. Legislators also have lowered taxes and cut regulations, he said, with the goal of making it as affordable as possible for businesses to employ Hoosiers.

The city of South Bend has received a large amount of flak recently from citizens and the media, both at home and across the country. Everyone seems to have something to say regarding the city's ranking on the Newsweek website's list of dying cities and the follow-up article in The Wall Street Journal. There have been many responses to these articles that say what the city, elected officials, local business owners and families need to do to revive South Bend. It appears there are many things currently wrong with South Bend and everyone has their own opinions on what needs to be changed.

BENTON HARBOR -- Smart hustle and innovation. These are key elements of success that David Brandon lists when he discusses his seven years as chairman and chief executive officer of Domino's Pizza. And they're traits that the organizers of Junior Achievement of Michiana hope their young participants soak up when Brandon comes to Berrien County to headline the group's first "Success in Entrepreneurship" dinner. In addition to Brandon, the dinner -- which will be at 6 p.m. Monday at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center -- will also include U.S. Reps.

BENTON HARBOR -- Smart hustle and innovation. These are key elements of success that David Brandon lists when he discusses his seven years as chairman and chief executive officer of Domino's Pizza. And they're traits that the organizers of Junior Achievement of Michiana hope their young participants soak up when Brandon comes to Berrien County to headline the group's first "Success in Entrepreneurship" dinner. In addition to Brandon, the dinner -- which will be at 6 p.m. May 8 at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center -- will also include U.S. Congressmen Fred Upton, R-Mich.

SOUTH BEND Â? A $282,000 appropriations request for the University of Notre DameÂ?s Robinson Community Learning Center by U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has been funded in a bill that recently became law. The community center, 921 N. Eddy St., will receive the funding to develop Robinson Enterprises, a training, entrepreneurship and business promotion initiative. The program will promote business success for at-risk young people, ages 16 or 24, through training, mentoring and start-up incubation for the launch of for-profit enterprises.

SOUTH BEND - Susan Vance, a professor emerita of business law and accounting at Saint Mary's College, has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar grantee to Thailand. Beginning in November, Vance will spend four months as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the College of Management at Mahidol University in Bangkok. She will give tutorials to master's and doctoral students conducting research into entrepreneurship, hold seminars with faculty and engage in outreach activities.

LANSING -- It started as a way to fund the journey, but it turned out to be the destination. As a college freshman, Drew Donner -- now a senior studying entrepreneurship at Central Michigan University -- started Best Books Around, an online business he hoped would help pay for his college education. Four years later, Donner's online book venture has done more than just pay for his textbooks. In 2007, Best Books Around competed with Barnes&Noble.com and Amazon.com, shipping more than 30 truckloads of books to customers around the world and raked in $82,000.

SOUTH BEND - Susan Vance, a professor emerita of business law and accounting at Saint Mary's College, has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar grantee to Thailand. Beginning in November, Vance will spend four months as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the College of Management at Mahidol University in Bangkok. She will give tutorials to master's and doctoral students conducting research into entrepreneurship, hold seminars with faculty and engage in outreach activities.

Marco Antonio Magallon, born two years after his parents moved to California from Mexico, grew up in Rancho Cucamonga between the Santa Monica Pier and the Big Bear Mountains. While most of his friends, "nerds" from high school AP classes, went to Berkeley or UCLA, he made a strategic decision about his future and moved to the Midwest. "I settled on Notre Dame because I felt they had the best alumni association," Magallon explains. "Notre Dame would put me in the best position for the rest of my life to have a strong tie to the school even after the four years.

SOUTH BEND -- For the first time, participants of SPARK, an 11-week Entrepreneurship training program for women in the Michiana community, can choose between morning or evening classes. The program, which is offered by the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative of Saint Mary's College, will take place from March 5 to May 16 and is intended to assist under-resourced, high-potential entrepreneurs to "spark" or launch successful businesses. In the past three sessions, the program has SPARKed seven local micro businesses, including an import/export business, a day care, a gift basket company, a beauty shop, a concierge service and a real estate development enterprise.

Chances are you're no more than three degrees separated from somebody who can help with your idea, invention or business, or knows somebody who can. It's a small town, after all. So community innovators have created Three Degrees of Separation to bring those entrepreneurs even closer to foster more energy and accelerate the gathering sense of breakout possibilities in South Bend and Michiana. "That's kind of the beauty of networking in this community," says Willow Weatherall, one of the organizers of the loose-knit association.

Here's an old-fashioned way to create an entrepreneurial innovator. While the other kids went downstairs to play at family gatherings, Mishawaka native Grant Carlile would hang around with the grown-ups who were talking business. His grandfather, Rex Carlile, had started Adams Remco, where Carlile's father, Dean, worked and where Carlile rollerbladed through the warehouse on weekends. "When my grandfather did that and I had this entrepreneurship buzz, family get-togethers were like board meetings," Carlile says.

SOUTH BEND -- It will be the third time "Spark," an entrepreneurship training program for women, has been offered to the community. And it begins Thursday. "It is a fantastic program and it's about women helping women," said Martha Smith, program director for the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative of Saint Mary's College, which offers the program. The program assists under-resourced, high-potential women entrepreneurs to launch successful businesses. During the 11-week session, they learn from about 32 established women business owners, attorneys, certified public assistants, bankers and other experts in the region who volunteer as trainers and facilitators, Smith said.

ELKHART -- The Corporate Partnership for Economic Growth announced Wednesay that North Central Indiana has secured $3 million to support entrepreneurship and venture development in the region. Leading businesses and institutions from throughout the region are committing $1 million to fund the Regional Entrepreneurial Action Plan. The $1 million commitment will be matched by a $2 million investment by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The funding will be provided to Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization, to provide services to entrepreneurs in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties.

Like a fire, it started with a spark. Susan Vance, a Saint Mary's College professor of business law and accounting, had an idea for a program that could empower women to become business owners. The program could serve students at the women's college as well as South Bend-area women. If she could pull it off, it would be a dream come true for Vance, an advocate for women taking financial control of their lives. It would be a legacy she would leave the college and the community as she looked forward to retiring, which she will do this fall after more than 30 years at Saint Mary's.

Our major private employers are a reminder that a company's success all started with someone's "crazy" decision to step out on their own. They mortgage their homes and convince their family, friends and investors that they could turn their idea into a product or service and get enough people to buy it before they faced bankruptcy, divorce or both. In most cases, the successful result of this decision would be a future one. Either the entrepreneur or his or her children put all the chips back on the table for a non-revocable bet on their team to either leap into future growth or risk dying a slow death.

No more "one hand washes the other" in public restrooms: TruClean Solutions Inc.'s wall-mounted gizmo -- think twin fist-sized carwashes with spinning spray nozzles for soap and rinse, air for drying -- does the job in 30 seconds or less. With 75 percent less water use, a mechanism that adjusts to wheelchair height, no paper waste, and a uniform clean every time, the machine could help reduce infections and food-borne illnesses in restaurants, medical offices, schools and entertainment venues.